Corned meat project diary

[ponyo]

I love good pastrami, but I haven't had much luck making good one at home with store bought corned brisket. So I figured it was time I learned how to make my own from scratch. I plan on corning various beef, pork, and lamb cuts and experimenting with different spices. First attempt: Chuck roast.

Made the curing brine with the pink curing salt, kosher salt, and various spices like coriander and mustard seeds, cinnamon stick, allspice berries, bay leaves, etc and placed the chuck roasts in the brine.

Placed the container in the fridge and will revisit this thread after a week.

 

[whm1974]

I don't know about pork and lamb, but I thought that good corned beef only use pure salt and spices?

 

[Iron Woode]

Alton Brown has a episode about this on Good Eats.

 

[daveybrat]

Hmm, i'm actually interested to see how this turns out.

 

[Chaotic42]

I am the great Corned Ponyo! Take me to your leader!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I am the great Corned Ponyo! Take me to your leader!

Pastrami princess!

 

[Oyeve]

I live a few blocks from Katz Deli in nyc. So yeah, I go there.

 

[Darwin333]

Red grapefruit, RED?!?!?

 

[sandorski]

In before, death by Botulism...

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

In before, death by Botulism...

Clostridium botulinum is actually quite difficult to culture. Other bacteria tends to crowd it out.

 

[sandorski]

Clostridium botulinum is actually quite difficult to culture. Other bacteria tends to crowd it out.

Then it should be quite the accomplishment.

 

[Darwin333]

Clostridium botulinum is actually quite difficult to culture. Other bacteria tends to crowd it out.

Wow, I can honestly say that I really don't want to know how you know that.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Then it should be quite the accomplishment.

I applaud anyone preparing real food. It's so rare these days, I don't have much of a sense of humor about it.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Wow, I can honestly say that I really don't want to know how you know that.

I'm a Chef.

 

[sandorski]

I applaud anyone preparing real food. It's so rare these days, I don't have much of a sense of humor about it.

Party pooper....

That said, I'm interested in seeing how it turns out.

 

[lxskllr]

In before, death by Botulism...

In addition to what Magnus said, that pink salt has sodium nitrite in it, and should prevent botulism.

 

[NetWareHead]

Wow, I can honestly say that I really don't want to know how you know that.

The OP is using curing salt, the bottle of prague powder in his pics. This contains sodium nitrite and is essential for curing meats and killing this bacteria.

 

[Ns1]

I live a few blocks from Katz Deli in nyc. So yeah, I go there.

I'm amazed that such legendary pastrami is placed on such shitty rye. For $17+tip or whatever I expected better.

 

[NetWareHead]

Good job OP. I use a recipe by Meathead for corned beef, the brine is delicious and imparts a great flavor to the meat. Now that the weather is cold, I cure 2 whole packer briskets at once in a huge ceramic crock and keep it on my porch. The cold weather chills the curing meat; otherwise I dont have enough room in my fridge to accommodate two brining briskets. I leave it in the brine for 2-3 weeks and turn it every few days.

 

[Oyeve]

I'm amazed that such legendary pastrami is placed on such shitty rye. For $17+tip or whatever I expected better.

True. I just buy the meat and use levy's rye at home.

 

[ponyo]

I don't know about pork and lamb, but I thought that good corned beef only use pure salt and spices?

You can do it with only salt and spices but you won't get the pink/reddish color meat on the inside. The color will be gray. Sodium nitrite is what gives the pink/reddish color inside of corned meat. The Pague #1 pink insta cure is 6.25% sodium nitrite and 93.75% salt. I used 1 tablespoon of the pink cure salt along with 2/3 cup of kosher salt. You don't want to use too much sodium nitrite as it can kill you.

 

[ponyo]

Hmm, i'm actually interested to see how this turns out.

me too.

I am the great Corned Ponyo! Take me to your leader!

Red grapefruit, RED?!?!?

Wife eats it. What's wrong with red?

In before, death by Botulism...

Hopefully the pink salt will work its magic and I won't die.

 

[ponyo]

So after 10 days, I removed the corned chuck roasts from the brine. Originally I was planning for a week in the brine but the crazy snow in Atlanta delayed my plans. I inspected the chuck roasts and rinsed it in water to wash away the salt. I saw the exterior meat was still red in color in one spot where the two roasts touched. I was lazy and didn't check and rotate the meat in the container like I should've have. And I think I should've also injected the brine into the roast to get even coverage. Lesson learned for the future.

I rubbed the meat with coriander and black pepper and placed it on WSM. I decided not to use the water pan and operate WSM like UDS. I plan to smoke the corned chuck for couple hours and then wrap and steam to finish until around 200 F internal.

 

[zinfamous]

nice, I keep meaning to start doing this. I was curing my own pancetta last year, and that turned out to be really successful. I need to make a few more of those

 

[Scarpozzi]

Looks awesome. I've wanted to do this kind of project for a long time because I'm in the South and real delis are hard to come by around here.

Time-consuming food prep makes it really difficult not to do double or triple batches when 10% more work and 50% more money yields twice the finished product. (or even less money when bulk buys apply) When I throw large bbq parties in the summer, I'll sometimes make a 3rd or 4th pork roast or extra racks of ribs just to take home...but I get stuck eating it solo because my wife and daughter won't help. I'm looking forward to my son helping me eat these kinds of food projects when he gets older. He's only 3.5 years old now... I may have to start making pastrami and corned beef.... (corned beef hash...mmmm) Not to mention German Sauerbraten...